Chemistry · L5 · The Kinetic Isotope Effect

Using deuterium substitution as an experimental probe for a mechanism's rate-determining step: why C-D bonds have a lower zero-point energy than C-H bonds, why that slows a reaction whose rate-determining step breaks that bond, and how to read a measured kH/kD ratio — as flashcards, a note (with an embedded experimental-logic diagram), a zero-point-energy comparison flowchart, and a quiz.